米ソ冷戦下、ソ連の原子力潜水艦K-19は航行実験において、突然原子炉の冷却装置に故障をきたした。原子炉のメルトダウンも考えられた危機的状況に対して立ち向かう艦長と放射能の危険と隣り合わせで修理に奮闘する搭乗員の活躍を描く。

戦火に包まれるベトナムを舞台に、三角関係の悲痛な恋愛を描いたグレアム・グリーン原作の『おとなしいアメリカ人』の映画化。監督が『今そこにある危機』のフィリップ・ノイスだけに、スリリングな社会派サスペンスに仕上がっている。

Clay is a young man in a small town who witnesses his friend, Earl kill himself because of the ongoing affair that Clay was having with the man's wife, Amanda. Feeling guilty, Clay now resists the widow when she presses him to continue with their sexual affairs. Clay inadvertently befriends a serial killer named Lester Long, who murders the widow in an attempt to "help" his "fishing buddy."

Henry Manning has come up with a new way to break out of prison: fake a stroke and get transferred to a nursing home. It's a perfect plan, except for one thing: the woman assigned to take care of him at the nursing home, Carol Ann McKay, has a plan of her own.